Dr. Oscar Picks Academy Award Nominees

Looking at Thursday's Academy Award nominations, I see a few sure things, some safe-ish bets, and a few long shots.

But before I get to my predictions, two important facts about the nominating process.

First, while all Academy members get to make nominations for best picture, other categories are decided only by members who work in that field. Actors nominate actors, writers nominate writers, editors nominate editors, and so on.

Second, the Academy uses a preferential, non-weighted balloting system to determine the nominees. Essentially, those films and performances with the greatest number of high-ranking votes are the ones that the get recognized.

So it isn’t as important that a film or performance shows up on every ballot, as it is that it shows up as the number one or number two choice on the ballots cast.

Confused? Don’t worry — so are many of the Academy members and fearless pundits who like to make predictions!

But not me. Click on for my predicitions for the nominees in the Academy Awards' major categories. And check back tomorrow as FOXNews.com unveils its Oscar Interactive.

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Dr. Oscar is Tariq Khan, a senior foreign editor with the FOX News Channel and a contributor to FOXNews.com. Khan has tracked the Academy Awards for over three decades, covered the Oscars for several news organizations, and in his first piece for FOXNews.com last year, correctly predicted the Oscar winners in each of the major categories. Which is when we started calling him Dr. Oscar.